We have been following the increasing crackdown on passengers wearing T-Shirts on airlines deemed offensive or threatening. These cases often raise free speech questions, but also raise serious questions of the increasing irrationality of airline staff and some passengers. The t-shirt of Wynand Mullins is a good example. Mullins wore a t-shirt on a Qantas flight from Sydney with the well-known quote from Princess Bride by character Montoya (played in the film by Mandy Patinkin): “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” Some passengers became alarmed by the t-shirt, presumably convinced that a terrorist would not only advertise his intent but choose a fictional character from a children’s book to represent his deep homicidal beliefs. Flight staff insisted that he change his shirt. Presumably, there was a passenger with five fingers that felt personally threatened by the quotation.
After he boarded his flight home to Auckland, New Zealand, a flight attendant took on the role of Count Rugen who insisted he did not like the line and told Montoya “Stop saying that!”
In this case, however, the flight attendant told him that the t-shirt was unacceptable for travel. He was only allowed to continue after he established that he did not have a change in shirts. You can see Mullins and his t-shirt at this site. I simply do not get how some passengers are so fearful that a joke t-shirt triggers such alarm. These are the same people presumably favoring greater and greater limitations on passengers and citizens under anti-terror laws. Fear has been wiped up to such a frenzy that passengers believe Al Qaeda is going into suicide missions wearing quotes from Rob Reiner films.
I only wish that when he was asked to change his shirt, Mullins pulled out a shirt quoting the character Vizzini: “you are friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless!”
The alternative lines may not be much an improvement for general acceptance of the passengers:
Westley to Buttercup: “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”
Westley: “DEATH FIRST!”
Westley: “We are men of action, lies do not become us.”
Vizzini: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha… “
Of course, Montoya was warned that his “over-developed sense of vengeance is going to get you into trouble some day.”
Source: Daily Mail
Gene H,
No competent scientist I am aware of disputes that 98-99% of “human” genetic code is microbial.
So is that straw man you set up (my camp / the opposite camp) a David (1-2% human genetic material) vs Goliath (98-99% microbial genetic material) little movie or what?
I wish you would cite to some authorities as lawyers do such as David Genes vs. Goliath Genes, 123 Da Bears 345 (1901) in the subprime court or something.
Or at least to a T-Shirt.
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Not a virus or microbe hater, Dredd. I’m just not in the extremist end of the pool when it comes to understanding their part in evolutionary processes. They are no more or no less important in shaping evolution than environment and genetics. That’s because I understand the inputs and outputs of evolutionary process in the light of good scientific practice, not because of propaganda from either your side or it’s opposite camp, the genetic determinism camp. Evolutionary biology is a bit more subtle than the inter-disciplinary war (and the war for funding research) over which input is “dominant”. That’s a ridiculous argument. All the inputs (environment, complimentary organisms, genes) effect evolution and to varying degrees depending upon the specific organism and its environmental situation in question, but no one process is dominant over all of evolutionary processes. Anyone who thinks so doesn’t understand evolution or the role and operation of natural selection. You chose a side. I didn’t. I think both sides are ridiculous and the fight isn’t about understanding evolution better, but about fun.
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You seem to be an authority, in the sense that you have no need to cite to authority.
And your microbiology degree is from where? 😉
One of my amygdala co-conspirators concerning FEAR on, in, and around T-Shirts:
Not a virus or microbe hater, Dredd. I’m just not in the extremist end of the pool when it comes to understanding their part in evolutionary processes. They are no more or no less important in shaping evolution than environment and genetics. That’s because I understand the inputs and outputs of evolutionary process in the light of good scientific practice, not because of propaganda from either your side or it’s opposite camp, the genetic determinism camp. Evolutionary biology is a bit more subtle than the inter-disciplinary war (and the war for funding research) over which input is “dominant”. That’s a ridiculous argument. All the inputs (environment, complimentary organisms, genes) effect evolution and to varying degrees depending upon the specific organism and its environmental situation in question, but no one process is dominant over all of evolutionary processes. Anyone who thinks so doesn’t understand evolution or the role and operation of natural selection. You chose a side. I didn’t. I think both sides are ridiculous and the fight isn’t about understanding evolution better, but about funding.
idealist, I do Qi Gong. Perfect for this sort of centering.
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 6:01 pm
“Why are we afraid of our friends the viruses and the bacteria?”
Um, because they can and do mutate in ways that can kill us? “Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu.The birds are doing that.” That and they aren’t a secret intelligence guiding our destiny, just a component of the forces that make up evolutionary processes like environmental pressures and genetics.
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Say it ain’t so Gene H … you a virus hater?
That must be a result of propaganda, like I had, like Mike S has big time.
We were all wrong.
The source of my rebellion is a book, a compilation of lots of white papers, of 41 microbiologists.
The review is on an American Society For Microbiology blog (Mike S thinks they are conspiracy theorists 😉 ) …
Viruses are a cell’s best friend as it turns out.
Microbes are feeling a bit left out.
Call ID707 for more information.
He made me do it.
I started making cultured vegetables this year. Delicious. Make you feel good! Yummy power food. Helps your system stay alkaline.
You can use the same bacteria culture for creme fraiche or cultured butter.
“Why are we afraid of our friends the viruses and the bacteria?”
Um, because they can and do mutate in ways that can kill us? “Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu.The birds are doing that.” That and they aren’t a secret intelligence guiding our destiny, just a component of the forces that make up evolutionary processes like environmental pressures and genetics.
Aren’t you excited ID707? (fermentation is microbial!) …
Why are we afraid of our friends the viruses and the bacteria?
“Stop Saying That!”
Reminds me of Mike S when I talk about microbes. 😉
WARNING: viruses for the most part are also beneficial to the human species, and without them we would simply not exist:
(Weekend Rebel Science Excursion – 13). So where can I buy a T-Shirt?
Mike S … where are you? 😉
id707,
If you want to know a source for a large part of what I said, read Miyamoto Musashi’s seminal work on the art of kendo “The Book of Five Rings” (“Go Rin No Sho”). He says quite a bit about fear. Notably, he’s famous for saying, “No fear, no hesitation, no surprise, no doubt” which is a much subtler saying than it appears on the surface. “Do nothing which is of no use.” This includes allowing fear to control you for ““[i]f you wish to control others you must first control yourself”. “Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.” “In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm.”
One learns a lot about fear as a ronin with over 60 duels won (a conservative estimate and not including the men he killed in battle).
Just so, one can learn a lot from the master’s words.
Inconceivable!
I am actually following your steps now.
A fourth step would be to rely on your resources being adequate for most tasks other than heart treatments.
Before I tried to analyze the sources. Not now. Don’t go into the thought.
Just decide and reaffirm that it is not relevant now. Let your tension flow away, help it wherever it signals in your body to simply relax, let go, breathe.
Plus some additions, like don’t analyze, don’t optimize. don’t decide what is the best way. Just rely on your innate abilities, and DO IT.
No procrastination.
I don’t go looking, they find me anyway. But that can be dealt with. Turn your mind resolutely away.
Thanks for your words.
“If one wishes, there is an infinite source for worries in your past and in your future.”
The key part of that statement is “if one wishes”.
Fear is a response. As such, it is something you can control or it can control you. However, the battle is over before it starts “if one wishes” to look for things to fear. Not looking for fearful things is the first step of not fearing. Accepting that fearful things will find you without you seeking them is the second. A will to calm is the third step in not fearing.
Everyone stands at the edge of the ocean with a spoon. Some succumb to the ocean and fear consumes them. Some run away and spend their lives with the tide lapping at their heels. Some realize that their is no spoon, they abandon the non-existent tool and walk along the shores. While the ebb and flow of the tide may shape their path, it does not determine it as they enjoy the walk along the beach. And in their moments of ultimate freedom, they go swimming.
The water is fine when you have no shackles of your own reactions to pull you down.
Having spent a lot of time with Aussie backpackers in my younger days, i would think that the flight attendant had seen far more menacing people on flights. You could always pick the Aussies out of a crowd in a backpacker ghettos–they were the ones that looked like thugs and biker chicks. And that look is still pretty popular with them. They’re usually great fun to hang out with for drinks.
Paul,
You should join others in their strivings to compensate the loss of Aaron Swartz They need folks who can ask the right questions as he uniquely could.
What Shano said, and others. NickS thanks for the reminder. I wikied him.
It left me confused but perhaps can now understand some of the American message. On Netflix?
Well you guys know more than I do, but myself I do know well and getting better at it.
Frank Herbert never stood at ocean’s edge with a spoon.
If one wishes, there is an infinite source for worries in your past and in your future. Only you can never reach and effect them. That’s as far as I will go today. It is counteractible, with simple measures, but the ocean is vast.
Replacing fears with life might be a way out.